My name from before isn't important. I was 40, vastly overweight, and had only really started to get my life on track. I'd spent most of my life, playing video games, watching movies, eating junk food, and fast food. I barely ever cooked for myself, and it was almost always things I could heat up quick in a microwave. I never achieved really anything in my life, but I did get to live one dream.
I'd dreamt of visiting Japan since I'd been in High-school. Now having a job to pay for it, and vacation to use, I was finally here. I mean it'd only taken me 22 years post graduation, working dead end jobs, living in dead end places, making dead end choices, before I finally matured. Now, here I was at the top of Mt. Inari in Kyoto! There was a beautiful shrine, with a wrap around of so many smaller shrines and little Tori Gates. This entire mountain had been a parade of the beautiful red gates.
I approached the shrine gently, and bowed at a 90° angle twice. Then I gave two firm claps of my hands, before bowing once more. I had palmed a 100 yen coin, and placed it into the offering box, before I clapped once more and backed away from the shrine. I wasn't a Shintoist by any stretch of the imagination, but it felt right following the customs. Feeling a bit proud of myself, I began to descend down the pathway to the right. I had climbed up following the main pathway to the left, and now I'd descend the other way.
I was on a long awaited vacation! I'd be adventurous, and cool, things I'd never once considered myself in my entire life! And now as I descended, I saw some hiker looking tourists taking a path off the main way. I decided heck with it, and followed them down this side dirt pathway. I even went past them when they turned back at the sight of the descent. I was going to be adventurous! This pathway turned into a series of dirt switchbacks going down a very very steep hill. The “steps” as I descended, were carved from dirt with a stick holding the shape in place, and two steel pitons holding the stick in place. There were thousands of these tiny little steps all the way down.
I descended anyway, I was going to have fun. I had knee surgery a year or two before and used a cane to walk. Today it was both a disability aid, and a hikers walking stick. It only took me like an hour to get all the way down the slope. I'd reached a house, a little waterfall, and a pathway reminiscent of the main ones I'd been following on the mountain all day. Of course this was part of the fun! I wasn't being stupid, I was being adventurous. I kept telling myself that repeatedly.
More walking down a path with fewer and fewer tourists, and before I knew it … I'd gotten off the mountain paths, and was now in a rural looking area of Kyoto. Somewhere on the side of the mountain. But again, this was all part of the fun right?! Right?! I'd just follow this country road, further down and I'm sure it'd connect to the area where the main shrine was at the foot of the mountain. Everything would be fine, in fact there was a really cool looking school where the road made a sharp steep curve.
I walked along the center of the road, and pulled out my phone to take pictures. The baka gaijin thing I'd done for most of my trip so far! I was intensely focused on getting as many pictures as I walked around the curve as I could. Of course I would be dense enough to not think about people actually, you know, using this road! I'd managed only to lower my phone slightly, as I heard the panic honking of the truck descending fast down the mountain and around the curve.
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Apologies, you have died. Adding up Karmic Value of your life to determine your next incarnation.
… … Low Karmic Total. Running Optional Scenario for Experimentation... System has approved you for experiment.
Looking at your current physical and mental abilities to determine your stats in the experiment.
Physical Stats:
Might: 3
Agility: 1
Vitality: 2
Mental Stats:
Mind: 5
Will: 2
Charm: 6
Randomizing possible starting tutorial location.
Difficulty 6/10 Starting Tutorial Area
Randomizing possible starting racial choice.
Low Karmic Result: Kobold
Randomizing name using in universe Kobold Name Structures.
Ki'jit
Randomizing Starting Class Options (4 possible choices by tutorial end)
Rogue
Tamer
warrior
trapper
Beginning Tutorial … Good Luck Ki'jit.
Birds were chirping, and there was sunlight shining through leaves above me. The sun hurt my eyes greatly and whipped my hand … claw(?) over my face. That surprised me, and I sat up from the prone position I'd been in on the soft … grass … below me. The sun was so painful to be directly under, and I whimpered in a higher pitched baritone like sound then my own voice had always been to me.
I scrambled up on two digitigrade like legs, and stumbled with the new act of balancing on joints that went directions I was not used to by any means. I stumbled back and slammed into the trunk of a nearby tree. It was way more shaded here, and I felt immensely better. It wasn't like the sun was directly hurting me, but I was way more sensitive to the very very bright nature of it. It made me deeply uncomfortable, and that thought process alone made me deeply uncomfortable.
I gave myself a very careful look over, and realized I was in a reptilian like body. Bronze-ish orange in color, a mix of soft leathery skin, and swathes of scales covering many parts of my body. I had a foot long orangish tail coming out just above my ass, also covered in scales. My stomach was smooth leathery like skin, as well as the undersides of my arms and back of my legs. I crossed my eyes a bit, and could see my 'mouth' was a muzzle of sorts.
Feeling up, I had I'd played my fair share of games, and I knew what a Kobold was. I compared myself against the tree behind me, and estimated if this was anything like the trees I knew … I was maybe 3 feet tall. I'd been six foot three before. I in a weird correlation to before, also had a very paunch like stomach, and rolls of fat beneath several parts of my body. So I'd come to this world fat too.
This world. How freaking easily did I just accept I was in another world. I'd read and watched my fair share of isekai. I got the concept, but couldn't get the fact it was actually happening to me. I gave a squeaky snort like laugh out of nowhere as a thought crossed my mind.
“Of course I get Isekai'd while I'm in Japan!” the snort laugh turned into full on higher pitched baritone laughs of mirth. Then I heard the growl, and froze up. Something big made that noise. I looked about, and saw about a dozen feet to my left a huge dog like creature … a wolf? It was massive, easily 4 feet tall from paw on ground to upraised snarling head. It's body was nearly 4 feet long as well. This was a biiiiig puppy.
I whimpered again, and started to creep back along the edge of the tree trying to use it as a protective cover from the wolf monster. It let out another growl, clearly upset that I thought I could possibly get away from it. Then it started to prowl forward, paw by paw toward me. I looked around in desperation, surely there was something I could use to defend myself?
But nothing. I'd been reborn in a new world, and I'd die in my first couple of minutes here. No wonder I had such a low Karmic Value or whatever that computer like voice had said. I sucked at succeeding at anything! I kept myself behind the tree, and peered at the wolf, waiting for him/her/it to make the first move. Maybe I could run away?
A flash of green, and a freaking Praying Mantis nearly 7 feet tall if I had to estimate, jumped down from another tree nearby and cut into the wolf. The slavering furred creature let out a pained yelp, and was biting at the large bug like thing now. I turned and sprinted away as quickly as I freaking could. Glancing back at the battle of dog on bug, as they were both giving and taking wounds. I would not look a gift monster in the mouth!
“BUGGEUS EX MACHINA FOR THE WIN!!” I screamed in that higher pitched voice, as I bolted. I only ran for like a full minute or so, before I got completely and utterly winded by the effort of moving my tiny chubby body anywhere. I panted and gasped for breath, as I stumbled through my fair share of shrubbery and undergrowth. Finally, near death I swear, I found a small hovel underneath some gnarled roots of a massive tree. The huge thing had torn at the hill it was growing on, and lots of dirt had crumbled and washed away.
I wiggled through all the twisting hard bits of root, as I made way deep as I could beneath the thing. I trusted all these roots, and the bits of the hill still existing would be enough cover and protection as I worked out where I was and what I could do from here. I leaned against a particularly thick root, and took my time catching my breath. A glimmer of something attracted my attention, only a few feet outside the trees root network.
It was a skeleton, wearing … armor? Very crappy looking rusted metal in small dinner plate sized hubcap like bowls. They had holes punched in them, and bits of string tied them together in a loose scale like formation. It didn't look like it'd offer much protection against … well anything. I looked about the area, and saw no sign of wolves, or death mantises.
Creeping a bit closer, I could tell it was a short figure like me. But it had a human like body shape and skull. It had died on it's back, and I could see things in the dirt and moss around it, half buried. I began to dig rapidly trying to uncover whatever else it might have had. Maybe there'd be something for my salvation in this dead dudes detritus!
I came away with what I assumed had been a bag, turned mostly to rotted tatters of smelly cloth. There was a belt, that had apparently sheathed his sword. A twisted bit of leather mostly rotted away, and a couple pieces of rusted metal next to a hunk of rusted iron that could have been a pommel at some point of its life? The real find was two fold.
Clasped around his neck, and buried in the dirt was a black fur lined cloak. It was in PERFECT condition, and as I held it I felt a thrum of … something coming off the thing. With the height of this little warrior, I knew this cloak would fit me. Inside of it, maybe sheltered by whatever protected the cloak was a small knife. Not even worth being called a dagger. About two inches long, it'd been woven into a kinda sewn in cloth holster. Only a few pieces of cloth in descending small loops, something the knife slid into inside the fabric.
I pulled it off the skeleton, and wrapped it around my nude reptilian frame. Clicking the simple little clasp together beneath my chin, I felt that thrum of energy reverberate again and was shocked by a familiar sounding voice.
Cloak of lesser protection: this cloak improves the Physical Resistance of its wearer by a point. Enchanted to remain clean and fresh.
“Neat!” I wiggled inside the warm black fur lined thing, and felt comfortable. Feeling I'd tempted fate enough, I wormed my way back into the roots. I hunkered down a bit, and wondered with wording like improving the Armor Rating … was there a status screen like in some Isekai?
“Menu!”, nothing happened.
“Character Sheet!”, still nothing.
“Status!” a warm buzz of energy.
Name: Ki'jit
Race: Kobold
Class: Not yet Earned
Experience: n/a
Hit Points: 4
Stamina: 2
Physical Resistance: 1
Magical Resistance: 0
Physical Stats:
Might: 3
Agility: 1
Vitality: 2
Mental Stats:
Mind: 5
Will: 2
Charm: 6
Skills: None
Skill Points: 3
Traits:
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Sunlight Sensitivity: perception and reaction speed reduced in sunlight.
Cave Vision: Able to see in Darkness in a grayscale hue.
Crèche Attack: naturally move, strategize, and Attack when in small groups.
Boons:
Low Karmic Reincarnation: you've been given a chance to fulfill an experiment to see if you can improve the Karma of a hated Creature/monster. A special reward awaits you at the end of this experiment.
Divine Blessing: You've payed homage to a religion that was not your own, and shown respect for a foreign culture. Deities have gifted you 3 Skill Points to start your new life. You may spend them on Class Skills, or Racial Skills.
Inventory:
Cloak of lesser protection: this cloak improves the Physical Resistance of its wearer by a point. Enchanted to remain clean and fresh.
Small Knife: a simple two inch blade for cutting.
Rogue Seed Core: 1%
Tamer seed core: 0%
Warrior Seed core: 0%
Trapper seed Core: 0%
That was all incredibly informative, and extremely confusing. I remembered the messages that were spoken before I first arrived here. It had said I had low Karmic value or something. Did that mean I hadn't earned good Karma or something? I mean, I hadn't exactly lived a fruitful and huge life. I mostly kept to myself, I just made do and lived as comfortably as I could get around to doing. Now I was being used to improve the image of what … kobolds?
I shook my head at that, and studied the other portions of my 'status'. The message had also stated my starting stats were based on what I had used to be like. I rubbed at my chubby leathery stomach, and blushed. I mean sure, I was never the most physically active. But an agility of 1? Was that why I got so winded jogging a few dozen feet? I delivered boxes and things daily, so I got the 3 in might. I wasn't 'weak' but I didn't power lift. No clue how to measure the Vitality thing. Except maybe it had to do with that abysmally low Hit Point Total.
Then there were the mental stats! Those were a bit better I guess. Will only at 2 though, seemed a bit insulting. Again, I absentmindedly rubbed at the chubby belly. Ok, there was almost no willpower when it came to getting food. Or being bored, and deciding to eat something. Or impulsively buying things when I was well aware I needed to save money or something. Yeah, a Will of 2 may be well earned. I cringed a little at my self reflection there. I wondered what it would take to increase these stats.
The traits were essentially what I expected of a Kobold. I was sensitive to the sunlight! It was pretty obvious from how uncomfortable I had been when I first arrived in the sunlight. Cave Vision, seemed like I could see in the dark. In black or white hue only though, that was interesting. I hoped it would come in handy, but not to soon from now. No idea what the frick a Crèche was, but it seemed like it gave me some kind of bonus for working with others!
The boons were pretty interesting. Like I noted, the experiment part of this thing seemed set on me making a good impression on someone, as a Kobold. There was some kind of reward for doing it, but it wasn't clear on when I'd complete this experiment portion and earn the reward. The second boon was the more interesting one. It seemed like I was being rewarded for paying tribute to the Shinto Shrines on Mt. Inari? Were the gods of this realm Shinto Kami? Or were they just appreciative of someone showing respect to religion in general. And what could I do with these Skill Points?
“Skills?” That didn't seem to do anything on its own. But there was suggestion of there being Racial and Class Skills. So if perhaps I mentioned that?
“Class Skills?” A loud blaring of a dissonant harsh electronic noise filled my ear as the notification popped up.
No class associated for skill selection
Now we were getting somewhere. An attempt to look at the skill selection of a class, got me a negative reaction, as I didn't have a class. So it stood to reason …
“Racial Skills?” A warm sensation crept through me and I got a much better reaction this time.
Current Racial Skills: spend a single skill point to obtain
Lesser Draconic Scales- Lineage Skill allowing the toughening of resistances in scales.
Lesser Dig- Skill allowing the creation of simple tunnels in basic earth.
Assessing Eye- Lineage skill per skill level helping you to see: threats to the wielder, and information on what you see.
Trap sense- developing skill that detects in a range per skill level simplistic traps and natural dangers.
Develop further to obtain other racial skills.
Now that was intriguing. I had four options for skills, with choices from enhancing the orangish scales on parts of my body, to detecting nearby traps? Though the one called Assessing Eye seemed very important if I wanted to be able see threats to me, or even learn about the world around me. I focused on it, and sure enough a warm prompt and notification.
Did you wish to spend a skill point to learn Assessing eye level 0? You have 3 skill points available!
A simple nod motion, along with the desire to spend the point was duly rewarded.
You've learned Assessing eye level 0! your now able to determine if something your looking at is a threat to you. To further develop this skill you may spend a skill point to reach level 1. You have 2 skill points available.
So it would seem after learning a skill, you could spend skill points to further develop them. Could just using the skill also increase it? It bared further study, and I'd have to work on it. But as of right now, my only skill just let me see if something was a threat to me? That seemed useful I supposed. But it wasn't as exciting as I hoped it could be. Maybe cause it was level 0? I'd experiment more later, but for now I was still sitting on two more points. I'd spend one more, and save one for either a new skill later. Keep something in reserve.
But the question was, which skill did I spend the point on? Increasing my 'resistances' with the Lesser Draconic Scales? Or did I want to look at tunneling deeper into these roots, with that dig based skill? Make myself a little hidey hole? But why come to this world if I was just going to hide all the time. Maybe I'd take up the ability to sense nearby traps? Were traps even an issue in these … woods? It might be something if I found a cave system maybe. But for now, I'm pretty sure if I wanted to survive, I needed more defense. I focused on the skill that made the most sense.
Did you wish to spend a skill point to learn Lesser Draconic scales level 0? you have 2 skill points available!
You've learned lesser draconic scales level 0. your scales are now able to resist a small amount of physical and magical damage. to further develop this skill you may spend a skill point to reach level 1. you have 1 skill point available.
There was a tingly almost itchy feeling all over my body, as I felt the keratin scales thickening and then compacting into a more dense form. My body felt a tiny bit heavier, and I could feel a firm sense of being a lot more resilient. I smiled a moment, and looked about, a rumbling making itself known in my chubby flesh. I was getting hungry, I hadn't eaten anything ever in this life. I'd have to rectify that, but how?
As if on cue, a tiny little squeaking noise attracted my attention. Scurrying about in the same roots I was hiding in, was a small mouse like creature. It was brownish in color, and had an extremely fluffy tail. Despite only being an inch or so long, it was quite round, and seemed to be nibbling at bits of acorn like nuts that had fallen from above down here with us. I might try those myself, but a tongue over my teeth felt the pointy tips. This body craved meat, though the thought of eating it raw was still a hesitant idea. I glared at the little creature scampering nearby.
This creature is only a mild threat to you.
Okay that felt a little insulting. So that was the Assessing Eye at work. By looking at the little rodent, I could tell it had a mild threat rating. But what about it was threatening? It was eating nuts and hiding among the roots same as myself. I guess its teeth had to be able to break through the shell of the nuts, maybe its bite was a problem? But I was a dragon adjacent species! True my stats didn't feel like much at this time, but to think a furry guinea pig/mouse hybrid looking thing was any kind of threat? I'd show it what intelligence and drive could do.
I got down low, on all fours and gathered a small pile of the nuts and pressed them into a small hollow I dug up out of the mud below us. Then I held as still as possible, with my right claw tipped hand holding my new little knife in the air. It was a strain to keep it held aloft like this, but I was rewarded. The little brown rodent creature, couldn't help but check out the cached bounty of treats. It crawled down into the hollow I'd dug, and began to lift and nibble at each nut as if taste testing to see if they were good.
I let my hand fall fast, and hard aiming as best I was able and buried the blade into the small creature. It let out a very pained sounding squeak noise, and started to wiggle about on the blade. I quickly withdrew the knife, and stabbed in again, then again. Eventually the pained panicked sounding squeaks fell away, and the creature lay still.
Level 0 scrounging cavy defeated. No class association. Experience withheld.
Interesting, it appeared defeating an opponent gave you experience. Er, it would have if I had a class to give experience too. And the creature was only level 0. So like skills a creature started at 0 as well. And yet somehow this thing was still rated as a mild threat? I didn't have a class yet, that was true. How did I even get a class anyway?
Which led me to remembering the seed cores in my … … … er inventory? I wasn't even sure where they were on my person, but each one of them had the same name as the 'classes' I was told I had choices of when I first got here. Then there was the fact some of them percentages. Progress toward getting that class I assumed. I looked at them again in my status screen.
Rogue Seed Core: 1%
Tamer seed core: 2%
Warrior Seed core: 0%
Trapper seed Core: 2%
I had more progress in Tamer and Trapper, while Rogue had the same single percent increase. I mean thinking about it, I created a trap while luring a small animal closer toward me. So trying to complete tasks in correlation to the class earned you completion toward acquiring the class itself. That was definitely something to think about, and explore further. But I had a Mouse/Rat/Guinea Pig thing to eat, and I wanted to cook it.
I delved real deep in my memories, and back to a better time in my life. At the Scout Jamboree that one summer, and learning how to find then use Flint. I had me a little knife, there were plenty of dry loose twigs everywhere. I just needed to start me a fire. Thinking about my mad dash flight away from the huge pup, and the scythe armed bug I did remember seeing a creek in that area. If I could check along the shoreline of that, I might find flint stones. It was worth a bit of a search, and I left my killed supper in the same hovel I had piled the nuts. I might try those too!
Trying to keep as low to the ground as I could, I did a mad dash from bush, to shrub, to tree. Always hiding, always look about for dangers. I was a tiny three foot nothing orange colored reptilian like creature. Something Assessing Eye thought a rodent could be a threat to. I was not going to let myself get surprised, or get caught by anything unaware. I clutched the tiny little knife tightly in my right claw-tipped hand, feeling a bit more secure having something to fight with if needed.
Finally I came upon the embankment of the creek, and saw rocks scattered everywhere along its banks. It had been something like thirty plus years since I'd been in scouts, and honestly I was amazed I even remembered you could find Flint in a place like this. But those had been happier times, and I had a lot of fun while away on those camping trips, and summers at Camp Geiger in Missouri. I smiled a bit, as I picked through the stones looking for the gray yellow chalky feeling rocks.
When I finally found one that seemed to fit the bill, something else had come to inspect me. A long black scaled fish swam right up to the edge of the water and stared at me with doll like black orbs. This huge ass fish was easily three feet long, and in such a small bit of running water seemed like a dominant species. I backed up a bit, clutching my prize as I glared at the thing. It opened its jaws revealing pointed teeth, and tried swimming a little closer. But unless it was amphibious (oh gods please no don't be) it wasn't getting me.
This piscine creature is a dire threat to you.
Yeah, that triggered the old nope response. I turned quickly to avoid finding out how much it could get up on land and dashed from rock to tree to shrub to bush. Being as evasive as I possibly could while I worked my way back toward the tree. I wasn't aware of exactly how a fish that large managed to feed itself in a few feet of water at most, but I wasn't going to keep it fed on Kobold flesh. Finally I made it back and wiggled my way into the roots.
There, in my little hiding spot, was a blob. Blue pulsating wiggly flesh with a bright red glowing orb near its center jiggling about inside. It had sunk itself into my little dug out hollow pit, and seemed to be absorbing my little catch! The nuts too were slowly moving up into the blob like creature, and I could see every thing that was absorbed was sizzling and had little bubbles flowing off them like they were boiling. I stared at this thing in shock and horror, and let my assessing eye alert me to what I was seeing.
This creature is an equal threat to yourself.
It was just as much a threat to me as I was to it. That indicated I could kill it then? Or maybe since it was trying to eat the thing I killed, maybe I could tame it? I did have some progress toward Tamer after all. I slowly moved toward it and had my hands outstretched. I moved inches at a time, not trying to look threatening in the slightest.
“Hey there little ball of slime! I'm … er Ki'jit. I'm a bit new here, and had planned on eating that mouse gerbil thing. But I see you decided to eat it instead. Maybe we can share such things. Maybe we can work together and be friends in this harsh world. I got a nice little thing going down here, not easy to get in here. Not that you really noticed that since you seemed to manage getting in here pretty easily.” Every word, a little tiny step toward it. Every sentence noticing how more and more of my kill was dissolving inside the thing.
It waggled and jiggled for a moment, and then started to work its way out of the hollow and toward me. It seemed like my soft words had reached it, it was coming up towards me. I kept my hands outstretched, again trying my best not to appear like a threat in the slightest to it. Pretty soon, the two of us, a nervous kinda newborn Kobold to this world, and a 2 foot tall ball of sentient (?) blue slime were mere inches from each other.
“See there we go. Like I had said, my name is Ki'jit. At least that's what I was told my name was. If you're going to be my friend, we should give you a name too. Like Wiggles or something! How does that … FUCK!!!” Two bits of the lime suddenly roiled and flung themselves out like tentacles right at me. It was only sheer luck and surprise that I tripped backward and fell on my tail, and tail bone. The two pseudopod tentacle things whipped out where I had been. I scrambled back to my feet, and had the blade out at the ready yet again.
It wiggled toward me again, keeping the two ropey slime pseudopods out and upward as it tried to get closer. It was definitely hostile, and apparently decided I was to be its next meal since tiny little rodent and nuts weren't enough for it. It gave a few swings in my general direction. But nothing so quick or sneaky I couldn't dodge out of the way of. When next one flew by my muzzle, I decided to take a quick swing of my own. A flash of my tiny knife, and a flump of wet severed slime hit the ground where it quickly lost form, and soaked into the dirt.
The blob like thing reeled back its other pseudopod at that, and wiggled very violently. Like a jello mold during an earthquake. It surged forward now, apparently upset it had lost a significant portion of its slimy mass. A fact I noted, as it had shrunk a little bit after I removed the tentacle. I held my blade at the ready yet again and screamed at it.
“BAD WIGGLES! Think about what you've done!” Apparently it was not amused at my attempt at levity in this tense situation. It shrank down a bit more as it pushed more slime mass into a second pseudopod once more. I braced myself and watched the creature. It seemed to be dodging around the roots as we preformed our backing up dance. I'm not sure its gelatinous form liked the idea of being separated from any of its mass. It was doing everything to keep itself from scraping away the stuff.
I began to formulate a plan or idea, see if I could do something about that. I needed to do this from range though. I didn't think I'd be much use going in close with this little knife. I looked around and found a small rock, reminding me of the bit of flint I dropped back near the hollow. I picked this one up, and chucked it like a baseball at the creature. It splashed into the jiggly mass, like hitting a puddle. Any of the bits of it that hit the ground lost form, and just turned into wet spots in the mud. This could work maybe.
Rocks, sticks, clumps of mud. Anything and everything I could get my clawed mitts on I was chucking at it. Bit by bit I was wearing it down, as I carefully weaved behind root after root. Trying to keep something between us. It wasn't being idle during all this either, it constantly was trying to nail me down with those two creepy tentacle like things. I'd been a fan of all things Japanese for FAAARRR to long to get captured by tentacles.
I also noted that as I started to throw more and more detritus at it, it was shifting that glowing red orb out of the way more often than not. It took great pains even to the detriment of catching me at times, just to avoid that sphere being struck by anything. I was guessing the orb was the heart or brain of this thing. Taking that out, would end the game of cat and mouse.
So I increased the rate in which I plucked up stuff, and tossed it. But this came at a cost however. As I increased the exertion I was going through to diminish and hopefully damage the blob of blue slime, I started to feel more and more exhausted and weakened. I was panting for breath, and felt my muscles beginning to burn from the effort. It was becoming more and more of a struggle to bend over, grab a clump of mud or a rock, and then stand to throw it. The notification that arrived wasn't a surprise at all.
Stamina is nearly depleted. 1 point remaining.
And with that proclamation, I felt my aching muscles give out and I collapsed back on my ass yet again. I pulled the knife, from where I'd stashed it in the cloak again, and aimed it point first at the advancing creature. It had shrunk down from all the slime it had lost to the size of a football and using the two foot long pseudopods to pull itself along. Groaning I crawled toward it, I took a pseudopod to the face feeling a burning, scalding acidic sizzle against my scales there.
I screamed out and with every last tiny dreg of will I had in my body I lunged down and stabbed the tiny little knife down into the football slime cracking right into the crystalline looking red orb. It shattered like my moms favorite vase off the fireplace, and I heard the notification ring out.
Level 2 weak slime defeated. No class association. Experience withheld.
“Man en-iúled n?r? ” A voice like icy death over a graveyard at midnight assaulted my ears.